Essay On Racism In The Workplace

This week’s readings emphasized different obstacles that social workers have to overcome, such as a changing workforce, the way that different cultures are addressed, and what constitutes racism. Historically, we have seen the workforce become more diverse. The diversification of the workplace does not necessarily mean that the workplace is fair, however. Many inequalities and injustices exist within the workplace still. A goal of a good social worker is to overcome and fix such inequalities. The graying of the workforce, meaning that the median age of workers is becoming higher, only means that elderly workers are dictated more and more by policies created by the government and the social security and pension changes. The feminization of the workforce means that more women are entering the workforce, but they are struggling to reach the heights of their careers that men have reached. The changing complexion of the workplace is that more visible racial/ethnic minorities are entering the workforce,
The concept of racism is one that has no set definition but lies on a scale. Theories of racism include ethnicity theory, which supports that racism is a form of ethnocentricity, race relations theories, which all state that racism is a race relation, psychological theories, and structural theories, which includes a facet of internal colonization and Marxist theories of class and racism. Also included in racism are theories of prejudice, which range from authoritarian personality of a parent, exploitation of a minority group, normative behavior of society, and the view of racism as a disease, although this portrays racism as an outlying outcome instead of being normal in society. When talking about race, it is important to note that while it is a socially constructed concept, race is still important in that it is part of ethnicities and